Catheters
A catheter is a thin, flexible tube that can introduce fluids into your body – or take them out.
More than 45% of hospital-acquired infections are traced to biofilm-infected medical devices. For instance, catheters are the most commonly used medical device and second highest cause of infection.
Placement of a catheter into a particular part of the body may allow:
- draining urine from the bladder
- drainage of urine from the kidney by percutaneous (through the skin) nephrostomy
- drainage of fluid collections, e.g. an abdominal abscess
- pigtail catheter: used to drain air from around the lung (pneumothorax)
- administration of intravenous fluids (medication or nutrition)
- angioplasty, angiography, balloon septostomy, balloon sinuplasty, cardiac electrophysiology testing, catheter ablation.
- direct measurement of blood pressure or intracranial pressure
- administration of anaesthetic medication
- transfer of fertilized embryos, from in vitro fertilization during artificial insemination
- administration of oxygen, volatile anesthetic agents, and other breathing gases into the lungs using a tracheal tube
- subcutaneous administration of insulin or other medications
Urinary catheter biofilms can contain S. epidermidis, E. faecalis, E. coli, P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae. Centrl venous catheter biofilms contain S. epidermidis, S. aureus, Candida albicans, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae and E. faecalis, which originate from the patient’s skin, device or healthcare workers. Urinary catheter calcification from bacterial colonisation may cause bladder stone formation and urinary tract infections.
Where antibiotic therapy is ineffective the best approach to resolving infections from biofilm-colonised catheters is to remove the colonised catheter.
Image (left) = A confocal microscope image of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1W) biofilm formed on the surface of a silicone urinary catheter device, within an in vitro bladder model. Image provided by Kiril Rosenov Kalenderski.
Image (right) = A coloured environmental scanning electron microscope image (ESEM) of a biomineralized biofilm formed on a clinical urinary catheter device. Struvite minerals are coloured in orange, apatite minerals are coloured in yellow, and the biofilm structure is coloured in purple.
Image provided by Kiril Rosenov Kalenderski. Magnification- 500x.
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